The Pact of Umar

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According to many Muslim historians,[1] the Pact of Umar (العهدة العمرية‎, Al-'Uhda Al-'Umariyya) (637 AD) is an agreement between a subdued Christian population and the Muslim invaders led by Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, the second Rightly-guided Caliph.

Much has been said of the Pact of Umar,[2] and much of it distinctly positive. Its contents are often compared to the treatment of religious minorities in Medieval Europe, while ignoring its influence and conformity with Islamic scriptural sources which still govern the treatment of minorities in the East today.

The rights and limitations placed on non-Muslims by Islam and, by extension, Umar's pact, however, seem to undermine these claims in many ways.

Authenticity

In traditional, mainstream circles, this document is and continues to be almost universally accepted as genuine by Islamic scholars. This view is echoed by some of Islam's greatest scholars and historians, including al-Khallal (d. 923 AD), Ibn Hazm (d. 1063 AD), al-Tartushi (d. 1126 AD), Ibn Qudama (d. 1123 AD), Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1138 AD), Ibn ‘Asakir (d. 1176 AD), Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350 AD), Ibn Kathir, al-Hindi and ‘Ali ‘Ajin. The eighth-century Hanafi jurist, Abu Yusuf, further noted that the terms in the Pact dealing with dhimmis are clearly in agreement with the Qur'an and hadith literature. Therefore, the Pact "stands till the day of resurrection."

Some secular scholars, and more recently, certain influential Islamic apologists, have doubted the authenticity of this document (as they also have the hadith literature and the Qur'an itself), but what has not been disagreed about is that what is described within this document was practiced by the early Muslims. For example, the use of distinguishing marks is consistent with documentary and archaeological evidence from seventh and eighth century Iraq and Syria.[3]

Text of Pact

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. This is a document to the servant of Allah `Umar, the Leader of the faithful, from the Christians of such and such city. When you (Muslims) came to us we requested safety for ourselves, children, property and followers of our religion. We made a condition on ourselves that:

  • We will neither erect in our areas a monastery, church, or a sanctuary for a monk,
  • Nor restore any place of worship that needs restoration
  • Nor use any of them for the purpose of enmity against Muslims.
  • We will not prevent any Muslim from resting in our churches whether they come by day or night,
  • and we will open the doors [of our houses of worship] for the wayfarer and passerby.
  • Those Muslims who come as guests, will enjoy boarding and food for three days.
  • We will not allow a spy against Muslims into our churches and homes or hide deceit [or betrayal] against Muslims.
  • We will not teach our children the Qur'an,
  • Publicize practices of Shirk (polytheism),
  • Invite anyone to Shirk
  • or prevent any of our fellows from embracing Islam, if they choose to do so.
  • We will respect Muslims,
  • Move from the places we sit in if they choose to sit in them.
  • We will not imitate their clothing, caps, turbans, sandals, hairstyles, speech, nicknames and title names,
  • or ride on saddles,
  • Hang swords on the shoulders, collect weapons of any kind or carry these weapons.
  • We will not encrypt our stamps in Arabic,
  • or sell liquor.
  • We will have the front of our hair cut,
  • Wear our customary clothes wherever we are,
  • Wear belts around our waist,
  • Refrain from erecting crosses on the outside of our churches
  • and demonstrating them and our books in public in Muslim fairways and markets.
  • We will not sound the bells in our churches, except discretely,
  • or raise our voices while reciting our holy books inside our churches in the presence of Muslims,
  • Nor raise our voices [with prayer] at our funerals,
  • or light torches in funeral processions in the fairways of Muslims, or their markets.
  • We will not bury our dead next to Muslim dead,
  • or buy servants who were captured by Muslims.
  • We will be guides for Muslims and refrain from breaching their privacy in their homes.'
  • We will not beat any Muslim.

These are the conditions that we set against ourselves and followers of our religion in return for safety and protection. If we break any of these promises that we set for your benefit against ourselves, then our Dhimmah (promise of protection) is broken and you are allowed to do with us what you are allowed of people of defiance and rebellion.'[4]
The Pact of Umar

Analysis of the Pact

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. This is a document to the servant of Allah `Umar, the Leader of the faithful, from the Christians of such and such city. When you (Muslims) came to us we requested safety for ourselves, children, property and followers of our religion. We made a condition on ourselves that:

At first reading, it may seem like this pact was drafted by the Christians themselves. However, the terms were dictated to them by Umar. This is standard procedure for agreements and contracts. This, along with the true purpose of some of its demands, are confirmed by Ibn Kathir in his widely accepted tafsir.

"Allah said, (until they pay the Jizyah), if they do not choose to embrace Islam, (with willing submission), in defeat and subservience, (and feel themselves subdued.), disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated. Muslim recorded from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet said, (Do not initiate the Salam to the Jews and Christians, and if you meet any of them in a road, force them to its narrowest alley.) This is why the Leader of the faithful `Umar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, demanded his well-known conditions be met by the Christians, these conditions that ensured their continued humiliation, degradation and disgrace."[5]

So we find that, not only many of the demands in the pact, but also the jizyah (poll tax levied against non-Muslims) which the Christians had to pay, were primarily meant to humiliate them.

we will neither erect in our areas a monastery, church, or a sanctuary for a monk,

We come to our first set of prohibitions, no new monasteries, no new churches, and no new sanctuaries. This prohibition still exists in various forms in many Islamic countries.[6][7][8] Imaging the uproar and condemnation that would rise if anything similar were to take place in the west proves instructive.[9] Some may think the Syrians would have been pleased with Umar allowing them to keep their existing places of worship, and that takes us along to the next prohibition.

nor restore any place of worship that needs restoration

So, no new churches for the Syrians, and the ones that did exist, they had to watch as they slowly decayed and fell into ruin. As a community, there is very little that can be more humiliating for a Christian, Jew, Hindu, or Buddhist than having to watch a holy site wither away. No doubt, Umar envisioned the communities themselves (like the Jews of the Middle-East today)[10] would also eventually wither away and die.

nor use any of them for the purpose of enmity against Muslims.

This prohibition seems fair enough, although the Muslim invaders do seem to have been projecting their own self-image on others. Mosques are notorious for being breeding grounds for anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-women, and anti-gay sentiment.[11][12][13] Often when Muslims riot and attack non-Muslims, it is following their Friday prayers.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] This is perhaps less surprising when one considers that in Muhammad's time, the call to prayer was also used as a call to war.[23]

We will not prevent any Muslim from resting in our churches whether they come by day or night, and we will open the doors [of our houses of worship] for the wayfarer and passerby.

Forcing yourself into others properties, especially into religious sanctuaries is extremely rude.

Those Muslims who come as guests, will enjoy boarding and food for three days.

The abuse of non-Muslim property goes from tolerable to humiliating. Not only were the Muslims allowed to come and go as they pleased, the Christians were also forced to wait on them hand and foot.

See Also

Translations

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External Links

References

  1. ↑ These include: al-Khallal (d. 923 AD), Ibn Hazm (d. 1063 AD), al-Tartushi (d. 1126 AD), Ibn Qudama (d. 1123 AD), Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1138 AD), Ibn ‘Asakir (d. 1176 AD), Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350 AD), Ibn Kathir, al-Hindi and ‘Ali ‘Ajin
  2. ↑ Paul Halsall - The Status of Non-Muslims Under Muslim Rule- Medieval Sourcebook, January, 1996
  3. ↑ Robinson, Chase F. - Neck-Sealing in early Islam - (BRILL) Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Volume 48, Number 3, 2005 , pp. 401-441(41)
  4. ↑ Tafsir ibn Kathir - Paying Jizyah is a Sign of Kufr and Disgrace
  5. ↑ Tafsir ibn Kathir - Paying Jizyah is a Sign of Kufr and Disgrace
  6. ↑ There are over a million Christians in Saudi-Arabia, yet it is against the law to build churches, synagogues, and temples. Shockingly, at present there exists not a single non-Muslim place of worship in the whole of Saudi-Arabia.
  7. ↑ In Indonesia, a country which is often referred to as a 'moderate' Islamic nation, it can take up to ten years to get permission to build a church, and on many occasions, only to have it retracted. - West Java, the construction of the Catholic church of Saint Mary blocked - AsiaNews, October 20, 2009
  8. ↑ Only two Months after President Obama's address to the Muslim world, a Cairo university professor, rather ironically, issued a fatwa stating 'building churches is a sin,' and equated them to Nightclubs, Casinos, and Pigstyes. - Mary Abdelmassih - Building a Church is a 'Sin' Against God, Says Egyptian Muslim Council - AINA, August 31, 2009
  9. ↑ In regards to the prohibition against non-Muslim places of worship in Saudi-Arabia, some, including the Saudi Ambassador to the US, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, compare it to that of Vatican City. Lets examine this fallacious statement. Vatican City (Stato della Città del Vaticano) comprises of 0.17 square kilometres of land within the city of Rome and is a minuscule area with a population of approximately 800. On the other hand, Saudi-Arabia, the largest Arab nation of the Middle East, is a country comprising of 2,240,000 square kilometres of land and an estimated population of 28 million. A fairer comparison would be that of Vatican city to the area surrounding the Ka'aba in Mecca, or Rome to the entire city of Mecca, or Italy to Saudi Arabia. You do not have to be a Catholic to visit Vatican City. In fact, the largest mosque in Europe is outside the Vatican's gates well within the Bishop of Rome's diocese, and there are no prohibitions inside concerning the display of non-Christian religious symbols, the carrying of Qur'ans etc., while non-Muslims are not even permitted to enter Mecca, in fact it is a punishable crime. And while no non-Muslim places of worship exist in the country of Saudi-Arabia, there are over 258 registered mosques in Italy which cater to a Muslim population of 1.2 million.
  10. ↑ "...Mass murders of Jews and deaths due to political instability did however occur in North Africa throughout the centuries and especially in Morocco, Libya and Algeria where eventually Jews were forced to live in ghettos. Decrees ordering the destruction of synagogues were enacted in the Middle Ages in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Jews were also forced to convert to Islam or face death in Yemen, Morocco and Baghdad at certain times. ...In 1945, there were between 758,000 and 866,000 Jews (see table below) living in communities throughout the Arab world. Today, there are fewer than 7,000. In some Arab states, such as Libya (which was once around 3% Jewish), the Jewish community no longer exists; in other Arab countries, only a few hundred Jews remain..." - Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim lands - Wikipedia, June 18, 2010
  11. ↑ Books calling for the beheading of lapsed Muslims, ordering women to remain Indoors and forbidding interfaith marriages found in 25% of UK mosques - Security Editor, Sean O’Neill - Lessons in hate found at leading mosques - The Times, October 30, 2007
  12. ↑ Moderate UK Mosque Preaches Hate, Urges Faithful To "Kill Gays"
  13. ↑ Barry Thorne and Claire Cavanagh - Did imam's sermon incite Van Gogh murder? radionetherlands.nl, October 31, 2006
  14. ↑ "...Coptic contacts told CBN News, the Muslim mob ["of nearly 4,000" (archived), http://www.aina.org/news/20110304222016.htm. ] that attacked the Christians did so at the urging of Mullah Ahmed Abu El-Dabah. They said during noon prayers at his mosque last Friday, March 4, the imam told attendees the “kaffirs” (infidels) had caused a lover’s dispute that led to the death of two Muslims the day before. He allegedly incited Muslims to rid the town of all Christians....""Update: Egypt Church Attack" (archived), http://blogs.cbn.com/globallane/archive/2011/03/07/update-egypt-church-attack.aspx.  - CBN News, March 7, 2011
  15. ↑ Violent race riot flared after mosque chief urged Muslims to confront right-wing 'English Defence League' protesters - The Daily Mail, September 7, 2009
  16. ↑ "...November 30, 2007 in Khartoum Sudan. Ten thousand Muslims carrying swords, knives, and sticks protest, after Friday prayers, calling for the execution of a British teacher who was convicted of insulting Islam. She had allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad...." - The Muhammad Teddy Bear Blasphemy Case
  17. ↑ "...Sheikh Tobah, Imam of the village of Shimi 170 KM south of Giza, called during Muslim Friday prayers for Jihad against Christians living there. As a result the Christian Copts living in the village were assaulted over two consecutive days. Eleven Copts were hospitalized and many Coptic youths were arrested. The assaults begain a couple of hours after the Sheikhs incitement...." - Muslim Cleric Calls for Jihad, Coptic Christians Attacked in Egypt - AINA, August 14, 2010
  18. ↑ "...[In response to a planned international LGBT conference in Surabaya] A 150-strong mob attacked the lobby of the hotel after Friday morning prayers and refused to leave until the police and hotel management would guarantee that the event was cancelled. In the evening, the mob conducted a floor-by-floor sweep of the hotel, going to the rooms of the 150 conference participants from 14 countries to make sure that they had left. An organizer told Gay City News how he was repeatedly punched by one of the agitators in the hotel lobby for refusing to turn over ILGA's list of conference participants...." - Glad to be gay in Indonesia - Megawati Wijaya, Asia Times, September 23, 2010
  19. ↑ "...Dozens of Islamists demonstrated outside the synagogue last Friday and shouted, “Jews wait, the army of Mohammed is coming back,” and “We'll redo the battle of Khaybar” - a reference to the slaughter of Jews in what is now Saudi Arabia at the hands of Mohammed's army...Concern for a repeat of last Friday's threats is particularly high Friday as Muslim leaders give their weekly sermons, an event extremist preachers may take advantage of to incite against Jews....", Maayana Miskin, "Anti-Jewish Demo Raises Fears for Tunisian Jews", IsraelNationalNews, February 18, 2011 (archived), http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142405 
  20. ↑ "...Television station Metro TV reported that a mob coming from a post-Idul Fitri prayer at the city’s Grand Mosque was responsible for the damage. Thousands of people descended on the Comro area of the city, where they tied ropes to the statue of puppet character Gatot Kaca before trying to pull it off of its foundation. The statue finally collapsed after the rope was tied to a moving van. The crowd then targeted the statue of Semar, another puppet character situated in the Bunder area. The mob threw rocks and pulled it to the ground before hitting it with sticks and metal rods then setting it on fire. The statue of puppet character Bima in the Ciwareng area was also targeted, as was the “Welcome” statue on Jalan Gandanegara, where the Purwakarta District office is located. Both statues were also destroyed and set on fire. The mob then moved to statues depicting the twin brothers Nakula and Sadewa. Hundreds of police and army officers were already there guarding the final two statues. The mob dispersed when it started raining...", Yuli Krisna, "Mob Destroys Four Wayang Statues", Jakarta Globe, September 19, 2011 (archived), http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/mob-destroys-four-wayang-statues/466195 
  21. ↑ "After Friday prayers today, a mob of several thousand Muslims from the village of Elmarinab in Edfu, Aswan province, demolished and torched St. George's church, which was being renovated. The mob demolished the dome, walls and columns, then went to the church depot where the lumber to be used for construction was stored and torched it. The fire lasted 2 hours but the attack continued until 7 PM ... Muslims also torched a large depot of electrical goods owned by a Copt, a supermarket and four Coptic homes. Muslims prevented the fire brigade from entering the village. Security forces, which were present, "stood there watching," said Mr.Michael Ramzy, a social worker at the church.", "Muslim Mob Torches Coptic Church in Egypt", AINA, October 1, 2011 (archived), http://www.aina.org/news/20110930204413.htm 
  22. ↑ "Afghans protesting the burning of a Koran in Florida last week stormed a United Nations compound in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and killed four Nepalese security guards and three other workers from Norway, Romania and Sweden, the UN said. The crowd emerged from the city’s main mosque after Friday prayers and marched on the UN office where they attacked the guards with knives, seized their weapons and entered the compound, Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the northern region’s police force, said by phone. The Nepalese guards were shot or stabbed to death and a man and a woman on the UN staff were beheaded, the spokesman said.", "Afghans Protesting Florida Koran Burning Kill 7 UN Workers", Bill Varner, Bloomberg, April 1, 2011 (archived), http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/afghans-protesting-florida-koran-burning-kill-8-un-workers-3-.html 
  23. ↑ “...the Messenger of Allâh immediately summoned the prayer caller and ordered him to announce fresh hostilities against Banu Quraiza,....” - Invading Banu Quraiza - AR-Raheeq Al-Makhtum by Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri
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